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TYLE People / SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1971 Ike' Man 'Who Wrote About Assassinating ... By jean M. White • A few days after "The Day of the Jackal" appeared In print, the author, Freder- 'ick Forsyth, had dinner with one of the technical consult- ants for the book: a profes- sional assassin. "He was really terribly kind," recalls Forsyth. "He said he enjoyed the book, found It realistic, and the suspense engrossing." ' So apparently are many of the readers of Forsyth's best -s ell! ng suspense thriller, which meticulously plots a professional assas- sin's attempt against the life of French President Charles de Gaulle, down to the mo- ment that the unmistakable De Gaulle visage appears in the crosshalrs of a gun's telescopic sight. For "The DaY of the Jackal" — which so success- fully blurs fact and fiction that. French newspapers sent out reporters to check' on some of the book's epi- Sodes — Forsyth drew from • his experiences as a Reuters correspondent in Paris. He then covered the abortive Petit-Clamart attempt on De Gaulle's life, the near-miss that came closest, in 1982. The background of "The • • • . De Gaulle Day of the Jackal" rings with the authenticity of fact from Forsyth's memories of pounds for a name and face. for the fallen angel in "Pa- the people and places of , The Jackal — the code radise Lost." that time. It is an authentic- name for the professional "I found this reaction to ity that leads the reader to killer hired byt he French be uniquely American," the forget that Gen. de Gaulle OAS (Secret amry Organiza- author observes. ''There is really died of natural causes this American trait of ad- tion) to kill De Gaulle, miring efficiency, and the years later. whom they viewed as a be- Forsyth, the reporter Jackal is efficient in his trayer over Algeria — is an job." turned novelist, left nothing amalgam of three persons The armorer, who spe- to chance. In addition to a that Forsyth knows. cializes in guns for the in- professional assassin, he One is the professional as- ternational underworld, was also consulted a passport sassin, "a man who told me Forsyth's consultant on the fel-ger and an underground he feels no more emotion in ,arrnorer. weaponry for the assassin's killing a person that in task. A gun such as that irrhe forgerwasn't as 'stubbi rig "Out' cigarette," used by the Jackal does ex- happy about the book as the Forsyth says. ist. The armorer showeci a professional assassin," For- Then there is an English rough form to Forsyth. syth Says. "He rang me up man I know, lean, charming, "As a kid in the coun• afterwards and said I had but with a hidden ruthless try, I had used a .22 to kill ruined his profession, taken streak. And there also Is a rabbits and pigeons. I didn't bread from his wife and twp undercover agent, who is a know too much about guns children, since I gave away superb chess player and me- but now I do. For the as- the secrets of his trade." ticulous plotter of moves." sassin's job, it had to be ' The forger was recom- For some, the Jackal has collapsible, light, easily con- Mandbd to Forsyth by a becotne a kind of berverse cealed' 16 be carried across Mercenary Whom he met in hero, the cold professional borders. •Iliaera_ Ih his job, the mer- whom they secretly want The prototype was a cenary needed several false to succeed In his killer's Identities and paid up to 200 task. It is a bit like rooting See ASSASSIN, B4, Col. 2 111 Arthur XIIte—Tha Atanidrigion Post Frederick Forsyth, author o f 'The Day of the Jackal." . Too Real Not to Be Believed ASSASSIN, From B/ Forsyth tells his precisely Were the bank raids to If the Jackal doeS not col- plotted tale Is a spare docu- hire a professional assassin lect his half-million-dollar Browning .229, bolt•action. mentary style. His hero is to kill de Gaulle? fee, the 33-year-old Forsythe The barrel had to cut back one-dimensional, a charac- "You'll have to read the has collected nearly that to about 10 inches and yet terization that reflects a book to find that out,". says much so far for his assassi- have enough accuracy to one-dimensional, emotionless Forsyth, with a touch of the nation plot. hit a man's head at about life. Jackal's secretiveness. Bantam has bought the 150 yards. It's the rifling Forsyth refuses to play Forsyth wrote his book in paperbook rights for in the barrel, the corkscrew the game of spotting the in- 35 days and nights, but it $365,000. The book has been action, that gives accuracy termingled fact and fiction was "already worked out in sold for a movie to be di- to a rifle and cutting back in his book: Jean-Marie Has- his mind like a chess game. rected by Fred Zinnemann, the barrel reduces this ac- tien-Thlry was in fact exe- For it, he interviewed many who directed "High Noon," curacy. cuted for his part In the Pe- of those who had lived in For Forsyth., the careful "The underground armor- tit-Clarmant plot; LI of the Paris during the turnmoll research has begun on a er told' me the rifle could 14 men who meet to protect after Algeria. new book, to be as meticu- do it Then there was the ex- de Gaulle are now living in "I'd invited them to din- lously plotted as a Jackal as- plosive bullet — not a dum- Place du 18 Juin (but a year) ner. Over the third bottle of sassination. dum. A hole is bored in the to pin medals-on veterans in wine, I would ask: 'Now "I can't say anything more slug; a droplet of mercury Place du 18 Juin (but ayear) what was it really like' Ev- - than it will be set In West- dropped in; It is resealed. It Later; the OAS did mount eryone likes to reminisce, ern Europe in the last five explodes with devastating raids on banks to raise and they told me what it years and will be 80 per cent effect when it hits a target." money. was really like." fact," he says. • .

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